Ryan Beene

WASHINGTON -- The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration would be able to order automakers to cease the sale of vehicles with dangerous safety defects under the Obama administration's multiyear surface transportation funding bill sent to congress today. Under "imminent hazard authority," ...

Editor's note: An earlier version of this report mischaracterized the status of the Energy Department's agreement with Alcoa. The deal is a conditional commitment, and additional steps are required before Alcoa receives the funding. WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Department of Energy has offered a ...

WOLFSBURG, Germany -- The next crop of Volkswagens coming to the U.S. will bare their teeth and flex their muscles to convey a more aggressive design message aimed at American consumers. They also will include a new small crossover with a footprint similar to the Golf hatchback, VW executives say,

WASHINGTON -- To avoid extending a dispute with regulators, BMW of North America has agreed to settle a complaint that its Mini division broke the federal law governing vehicle warranties. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission alleged that language in the owner manuals of some Mini vehicles required ...

BERLIN -- Audi will add two crossovers to its lineup -- one big and one small -- and Volkswagen will offer new plug-in hybrid variants of several nameplates, company executives said last week. In 2016, Audi will launch an entry-level crossover called the Q1 positioned beneath the subcompact Q3, CEO

Max Hoffman was passing through a stretch of rural western Connecticut one day in 1950 when he stopped for gas at an Amoco station owned by Frank and Gloria Malumphy. Hoffman wasn't just a motorist with an empty tank. He was head of Hoffman Motor Co., a pioneering distributor of imported European

BERLIN -- The Volkswagen Group plans to offer plug-in hybrid powertrains on most of its models before longer-range batteries become a reality. Audi will offer plug-in hybrid versions of the Q7 SUV, A7 and A8 sedans while the VW brand will launch a plug-in Touareg SUV and Phaeton flagship sedan in

WASHINGTON -- American Honda on Monday will launch an ad campaign urging owners to fix vehicles recalled for Takata airbag inflators at risk of exploding during a crash. Full-page ads will run in more than 120 newspapers, and 30-second radio spots will air in more than 110 regional markets, the ...

destined for sale abroad. Total auto production increased 27 percent last year, compared with 2013, and AMIA has predicted that Mexico will produce more than 5 million vehicles by 2020. David Phillips and RyanBeene contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON -- As U.S. auto safety regulators mull an order to speed the Takata airbag recalls, they face a vexing problem: capacity. It's unclear whether suppliers can speed production of the inflators beyond their current expansion plans, or how quickly they could do so, making any order to ...

WASHINGTON -- What looked like a hint of a sales rebound at Volkswagen evaporated in February, as every model except its red-hot Golf lineup posted lower sales. Volkswagen said today its U.S. sales fell 5.2 percent to 25,710 units in February. The decline is a setback for VW, which ended a 17-month

FRANKFURT -- Volkswagen previewed a coupe-styled sedan at the Geneva auto show that is set to become a production model to boost the brand's image and attract customers from cars such as the Mercedes-Benz CLS. Klaus Bischoff, head of design for the Volkswagen brand, said the Sport Coupe Concept ...

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety added its more demanding Top Safety Pick+ rating in 2012. And every year since, the group has made the rating tougher to achieve. The TSP+ was launched to supplement the long-running Top Safety Pick award by incorporating results of the institute's ...

WASHINGTON -- The former federal auto safety regulator chosen to coordinate automakers' investigation into Takata airbag explosions is no stranger to the issue of airbags endangering lives they're designed to save. David Kelly joined the National Safety Council in 1996 to work on the public ...

WASHINGTON -- David Kelly, the former acting chief of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, was hired this week to oversee the 10-automaker consortium searching for the root cause behind Takata airbag explosions. But this isn't the first time that Kelly has had to deal with airbags ...

WASHINGTON -- A consortium of 10 automakers formed to investigate the root cause behind Takata airbag inflator ruptures said today they have selected Orbital ATK to test the supplier's troubled inflators on their behalf. Orbital ATK is an aerospace and defense contractor with expertise in rocket ...

WASHINGTON -- The EPA today issued updated procedures for a critical part of fuel economy testing that some automakers have struggled with in the last two years. The update covers how automakers should calculate road load values in coast down tests, which measure the rolling resistance and ...

automakers formed in December to evaluate the inflators. Takata has pledged to cooperate, but the group has yet to hire an engineering firm, leaving Honda dependent for now on Takata's own testing. RyanBeene contributed to this report.

Workers who fought the UAW's organizing drive in Chattanooga now have a union of their own. One year after the UAW's failed bid to organize Volkswagen's sole U.S. plant, a group called the American Council of Employees last week won recognition to represent some of the plant's hourly and salaried